Bonus: 257 Magazines Overdelivered on Circ Guarantees During Second Half
Just 27 missed rate base.
02/11/2009 -18:11 PM
As we found out definitively this week, the consumer magazine industry felt the brunt of the U.S. economic meltdown at the newsstand during the second half of 2008. As we reported, a staggering 355 magazines tracked by ABC—some 75 percent—saw their single copy sales decline between June and December. (Just 116 managed to increase sales at the newsstand.)
There was one major bright spot for publishers, however. Some 257 magazines overdelivered on their rate base guarantees to advertisers, while just 27 missed them.
This is good for those vying against television for bigger slices of marketers’ advertising budgets.
“With TV guarantees, under delivery is the norm,” Jack Hanrahan, publisher of the newsletter CircMatters, wrote in the latest edition. “Deficiencies of [5-to-10 percent] are not unusual. Makegood spots provide the missing advertising weight but the weight usually falls outside of the weeks when the rating points were desired.”
But giving advertisers too large a bonus—like Game Informer, which distributed, on average, of 1,217,598 more copies per issue than it guaranteed—can be problematic, and smacks of missed revenue.
Here are the top 10 over-and-underachievers during the second half, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
ACHIEVERS
| TITLE | COPIES | RATE BASE | BONUS | PCTG |
| Game Informer | 3,517,598 | 2,300,000 | 1,217,598 | 52.94% |
| Giant | 372,673 | 250,000 | 122,673 | 49.07% |
| Figure | 733,893 | 550,000 | 183,893 | 33.44% |
| Domino | 1,047,916 | 800,000 | 247,916 | 30.99% |
| National Review | 187,968 | 150,000 | 37,968 | 25.31% |
| Archaeology | 263,756 | 215,000 | 48,756 | 22.68% |
| Organic Gardening | 284,675 | 235,000 | 49,675 | 21.14% |
| Technology Review | 181,123 | 150,000 | 31,123 | 20.75% |
| Washingtonian | 129,757 | 110,000 | 19,757 | 17.96% |
| BH+G: American Patchwork | 293,918 | 250,000 | 43,918 | 17.57% |
UNDERACHIEVERSÂ
| TITLE | COPIES | RATE BASE | SHORT | PCTG |
| Soap Opera Weekly | 169,674 | 225,000 | -55,326 | -24.59% |
| Mira! | 93,259 | 120,000 | -26,741 | -22.28% |
| Today's Health & Wellness | 137,902 | 175,000 | -37,098 | -21.20% |
| Athlon Baseball | 143,986 | 170,000 | -26,014 | -15.30% |
| Life & Style | 472,158 | 550,000 | -77,842 | -14.15% |
| In Touch | 898,911 | 1,000,000 | -101,089 | -10.11% |
| PGA Tour Partners | 483,183 | 525,000 | -41,817 | -7.97% |
| Workbench | 278,702 | 300,000 | -21,298 | -7.10% |
| Robb Report | 113,496 | 120,000 | -6,504 | -5.42% |
| Athlon Football | 785,735 | 830,000 | -44,265 | -5.33% |
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